As always, our Saudia Airline flight from Riyadh to Medina started with prayer. "Ladies and gentlemen," the flight attendant said over the intercom. "The text that you are about to hear is a supplication that the prophet Mohammed, peace be upon him, used to pray before travelling."The rest was in Arabic. I listened to the record voice, low and ponderous, as I looked out the small window at the unending desert below. I was travelling with friends to Saudi Arabia's hidden desert city of Madain Saleh. While many people have heard of Nabatean capital Petra in Jordan, Madain Saleh, the Nabateans' second-largest city and a Unesco World Heritage Site, remains relatively unknown. Once a thriving city along the ancient spice route, it played a crucial role in building a trade empire. But today its monumental stone-hewn tombs are some of the last, and best preserved, remains of a lost kingdom.

Safari snobs sometimes look down on South Africa. It's easy and accessible, but the parks are crowded, some say, and there's better game viewing elsewhere on the continent.

That may be true, but there are exceptions to every rule. One is Zulu Camp on the private Shambala Game Reserve, which stretches over 32,000 acres in the Limpopo Province, a few hours' drive from Johannesburg. The Land Cruiser crosses a shallow pond to enter the reserve, a design flourish to emphasize the purity inside. And once you're in, you don't see anyone from the outside.

Picturesque Biertan, one of Transylvania's seven Saxon Unesco World Heritage villages, feels frozen in time. Horse-drawn carts are still a part of daily life, and local residents gather to trade their wares in a cobbled village square. At the heart of the village, a 15th-Century fortified church towers over the surrounding structures from its hilltop perch.

Inside the church grounds, along one of its fortification walls, is a small building with a room inside barely larger than a pantry. For 300 years, couples whose marriages were on the rocks would find themselves here, locked away for up to six weeks by the local bishop in hope that they would iron out their problems and avert a divorce.

After a full Irish breakfast at the B&B, we left for Carlingford in Co.Louth around 10.30am arriving at 11.30am, we went on to Greenore later and then left Dundalk around 2pm. Around 4pm we arrived at Kilmainham Jail, Dublin for a prebooked tour which finished around 5pm. Once the tour was over I headed back to Galway City, arriving home around 8.30pm. Another successful tour for thehappywanderer...

As the daughter of a mother who worked overseas, I always looked forward to receiving pasalubong from Mama when we were kids. It came every few months in the form of balikbayan (return [to] country) boxes filled with chocolates, canned goods, toiletries, cosmetics, clothes, shoes and anything else that couldn't be bought or found in the Philippines. These handpicked items were carefully packed by my mother, sent in the hopes of filling the void left by a parent abroad. The Filipino word pasalubong has its roots in the word salubong, which means meet or welcome. When prefixed by pa, the act of salubong turns into an object relating to it – to meet, to welcome. Pasalubong, therefore, is a souvenir – a gift given to someone.

It didn't take long for American tourism to flourish in Cuba following Obama's decision to ease travel restrictions in 2016, allowing Americans to finally book their own travel to the island rather than going as part of an organized tour group. American airlines added competitively priced direct flights; new restaurants opened; hotel chains announced plans to expand and build. For their part, Cubans opened their arms to American travelers.

Oprah Winfrey declared that 2017 is the year of adventure, and she is keeping to her word. Later this month, she will set sail on a cruise to Alaska on Holland America Line with her best friend Gayle King, some of her magazine's staffers and a host of experts offering advice on healthy eating, wellness, meditation and more.

I'm well aware that Iceland is deeply evocative of volcanoes, lava fields and fierce waves crashing violently against towering cliffs; however, these otherworldly landscapes - as photogenic as they are - should not, in any way, overshadow the quirky treasure that is the Icelandic capital. Let these photos of Reykjavik prove in 27 different ways how wonderful and worthwhile the city is and why you shouldn't simply just pass through. Give Reykjavik the credit it deserves!

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